Liz Bulgarelli has seen an extraordinary number of Iowans with serious eye problems during 24 years of service in the Ophthalmology Clinic. That's why she was caught off-guard two years ago when, out of the blue, ophthalmologist John Sutphin, M.D., raised an outlandish idea.

Would she like to join a group of 13 other Iowans, including Sutphin, on an eight-day mission of mercy to Haiti, the world's poorest country?

"It was something I just had to do," she says.

Bulgarelli soon found herself working in a primitive eye clinic in Pignon, Haiti, a poverty-stricken village of 10,000 people where witch doctors still practice their craft and modern medical care is either unavailable or simple at best.

Sutphin, Bulgarelli, and the other Iowans screened and treated several hundred Haitians. Some people were treated for hardened cataracts and end-stage glaucoma. Others were fitted for eyeglasses they would not have been able to afford. One man was relieved of constant, excruciating pain when his blind, diseased eye was removed.

Bulgarelli will never forget the smiles of joy and gratitude of the patients she helped treat in Haiti. It makes her appreciate even more the extraordinary services available to Iowans at UI Hospitals and Clinics.